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What this Election Means

The Democrats lost control of the House of Representatives tonight, and a few seats in the Senate.Â Republicans have also taken control of governorships in some traditionally Blue states.Â What does this all mean?

Rarely are both Houses of Congress divided by party.Â The next two years will be legislative gridlock with President Obama wielding the Veto stamp if Republicans try in some way to repeal things like Healthcare Reform or preserve all of the Bush tax cuts (better for them to expire completely than place another $700 billion burden on the federal budget for the next ten years).

In the state, Democrats gained.Â We’ve taken control of the governor’s office, returned Senator Boxer to Washington, andÂ many of the ballot measures that favor Democratic positions are doing well.Â We are in a blue state and it got bluer as a result of this election.

Locally, I’m disappointed in a “throw the bums out” year that John Campbell appears headed back to Washington.Â Campbell did nothing in office to warrant a return to DC and never made the case to voters why he should be elected.Â Democrats fall in love with their candidates while Republicans fall in line.Â Perhaps voters in Irvine wanted Beth Krom to stay on the city council where she has been so effective.Â I’m also hoping Melissa Fox rebounds from an early evening deficit.Â But credit both Krom and Fox; no Republican should ever take this area for granted again.Â And Loretta Sanchez is widening her lead over Van Tran in CD-47.

We have rays of hope in Orange County.

Irvine Mayor Sukhee Kang is poised for re-election as is Council member Larry Agran.Â Shiva Farivar is currelty in fourth place but should pick up steam throughout the night as most of the early results tend to come from Republican voters.Â Gavin Huntley Fenner and Sharon Wallin are well on their way for re-election.

Other Democrats doing well include Anaheim school board member Jordan Brandman, Capo Unified’s Gary Prithcard, Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido is comfortably ahead in his race.Â There are others, but it’stoo early to write about them.

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5 comments for “What this Election Means”

Need to be said

November 3, 2010 at 2:56 am

For all the spam in my email, on my facebook page. For all the calls I received and hype I have heard. For all of this it must be said: Fox, Nguyen, Krom – Failure. Not. Even. Close. Anyone who wasted their time or money on these three did just that. Wasted it. I did not. Yet the spam came. I ignored. At least I do not have the indignity of having wasted my time or money for these three over-hyped failures.

It was not a waste. We’re simply not going to hand over a seat to the GOP. We must run someone in every race. All three were excellent candidates who ran on issues who were dodged by Republican opponents. Now the real work begins again; building voter registration, holding the newly elected accountable, and building towards the 2012 elections. I refuse to surrender these seats to a party that won’t even debate the issues

Need to be said

November 3, 2010 at 9:52 am

Ok. Fair enough, the idea of running someone in every race, but how about these facts: Nguyen and Fox have been constantly touted as the best candidates, the best shot we have had in ages. These phrases were used to suck in a great deal of time and money from supporters. However, they failed, failed to even acheive a margin of defeat in line with party registration figures. In other words, we can all accept the GOP registration advantage, but would not the best candidates in ages be expected to start at this disadvantage point and build from there and close the gap some? It is abundantly clear the people did not connect nor care about these two. The GOP wave does not hold true in California, so we can judge these people on their own merit.

Next, Krom. What is there to say? The same abysmal failure in terms of failing to meet the registration margin, but this time against a candidate that did not bother to run. Campbell ignored her and absolutely crushed her in the end. That is sad beyond words. You have tried to toss her some small dignity with the idea that Irvine voters were saying yes to Krom on the Council, but we all know that is nothing more than grasping to find something positive to say. Fairly done, your words are kind as one may be, but the fact is we should never see her run for a higher office again after what could by anyone in their right mind only be considered the most humiliating of defeats.

Northcountystorm

November 4, 2010 at 11:07 pm

I wouldn’t consider the races of Krom, Fox and Nguyen to be failures at all. Both ran ahead of their registration margins–Krom by 7% and Fox by almost 8%. Nguyen and Fox were first time candidates running against incumbants. Fox(and Krom) had the added burden of running in a partisan seat as a Democrat in a year that the Democratic vote was down in 90% of the country. They both ran creative, active races that developed a good deal of contacts for the future and with Fox, gave hope and inspiration to Democrats in deep Red areas that a Democrat will campaign actively there. Ditto on the latter point with Krom. Had Krom run in 2008 she wins or comes very close. Obama won the district in 2008 yet I expect his approval rating is as low as anywhere in the country in the 48th CD. it is extremely difficult to get someone to run in these seats and those that do usually do the minimum amount of work necessary(I’m not putting that down, just being realistic)to wave the party flag. Focusing on the voter registration

Northcountystorm

November 4, 2010 at 11:11 pm

alone(even though they ran ahead of registration) isn’t taking into account the value of their candidacies. Nguyen will be back. Remember, Curt Pringle lost 3 elections for city council in Garden Grove before election to the Assembly. Jose Solorio lost his first election as did Loretta Sanchez.